Friday, October 28, 2011

Looking for battery power? Have we got a deal for you! The Speedotron Explorer 1500 Digital Portable Power Supply, the latest Black Line System innovation. The Explorer provides a cost effective alternative to gas powered generators or high priced European portable systems for those location shoots where electrical power is not available. This used unit comes with one 202VF head, and standard reflector. $1700.00SOLD

Sugar Studios are the first of their kind in Western Canada, boasting two high end photography rental studios: Studio A, with its 36' infinity wall is wonderful for any style of photography - advertising, editorial, portrait, automobile, table top, etc - while Studio B is coveted for its beautiful available light, even on a rainy day.

Sugar's clean white interiors can also be rented as an event space for corporate or personal parties and are perfect for any type of art of photo exhibit.

Beau Photo also offers FREE DELIVERY & PICK-UP as an exclusive offer only to Sugar Studios. If you rent your equipment through Beau Photo, we will deliver it to Sugar Studios and pick-up for no extra charge - a $50 savings! Please give us at least 24 hours notice. Our rental equipment guide can be viewed here.

Carol and Simon are at the Photo Plus Expo in new York and Simon managed to score some hands-on time with the awesome new Canon EOS-1D X! I haven't had a chance to talk to him yet, to find out what his impressions were, but Carol did send back a photo to make me jealous...

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Just announced, the Canon EOS-1D X will be Canon's new flagship DSLR and it's coming in March of 2012. A merging of the lines is taking place, as the 1D X is seen as the successor to both the 1D Mark IV and the 1Ds Mark III. It boasts an all new full-frame 18MP CMOS sensor with the lowest noise levels yet of any Canon DSLR. It is said that the 1D X will offer a two-stop improvement in high-ISO noise when compared to the 1D Mark IV, as well as better dynamic range and improved overall image quality compared to any previous Canon DSLR. A mind-blowing ISO 204,800 will be its upper limit with ISO 51,200 considered a "normal" non-boosted ISO limit.

It will also be the fastest (by far!) full-frame Canon DSLR ever released, with the ability to shoot continuously at up to 12 fps with full functionality, and even up to 14 fps with the mirror locked up and in JPEG mode. Despite having a much larger mirror than the 1D Mark IV, which has an APS-H sensor and is not full-frame, the 1D X will have an even shorter viewfinder blackout time when shooting.

An all new AF system with 61 points in total with a massive number of cross sensors (21 sensitive to f/5.6, 20 sensitive to f/4.0 and 5 dual-cross sensors working to f/2.8), and all new focus and subject detection/tracking algorithms with much easier and intuitive user configuration options, promise to make this the most accurate focusing 1D camera ever.

Video functionality has been improved as well with no more 4GB limits for recording duration. The 1D X will seamlessly continue recording (up to 30 minutes), splitting footage into multiple 4GB segments without dropping any frames in the process. There are some new less compressed video options that will make it easier to edit raw footage without requiring transcoding, but these come with massive data rates... how does 6 minutes of video filling up a 16GB card sound? Now that's a lot of data! Timecode embedding is also now an option.

Thursday, October 6, 2011

For the first time ever, we finally have decent stock on the awesome X100 camera from Fujifilm. Not only on the camera itself, but also accessories, such as the premium leather case, lens-hood/filter-ring combos and spare batteries as well!

If you want to take a look at an X100, or even take some sample photos, please let me (Mike) know in advance (call or email) and I will make sure I have my own personal camera here at the store for you to look at or try out. The camera is $1199 and our accessory pricing is amongst the best you'll find anywhere.

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

This past weekend Mike and I had the pleasure of spending some quality time at the PPOC-BC Northern Region seminar up in Prince George. As always we were once again spoiled by the Northern hospitality and we thoroughly enjoyed seeing everyone again. We're sorry we weren't able to stay on Monday to hear Albert Normandin present his "Adventures in Creativity" program, especially because we heard a great time was had by all!

Congratulations to all the winners and especially to Ute Wilder who won Best Overall Submission.

Time-Lapse: Prince George to Maple Ridge

Here is a time lapse movie that Mike shot from inside the rental minivan, coming back from the seminar in Prince George. A Nikon P7100 was mounted to a passenger side hand-grip with a Gorillapod. The camera was set to time-lapse mode, taking one shot every 30 seconds and the resulting frames are played back at 10 fps in this video. Unfortunately the battery died before we got all the way back. However, still very impressive battery life! The camera was running for over 9 hours straight and took about 1100 frames.

Music is an excerpt from the song "Speedbumps" by Sounds from the Ground. (iTunes Link)